Merrill + ADDIE = MADDIE

I tend to view adult education - graduate education in particular - as professional development...sometimes corporate training...and ADDIE fits that bill perfectly!

Its 5 phases of Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate  provide an extremely useful framework through which to view design and development of professional development training.

ADDIE easily lends itself to adult learning by providing a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance tools. It's cyclical, rather than a linear approach, and it provides for frequent evaluation at each phase, with constant "tweaking."

I want to emphasize, however, that ADDIE is more of a project management tool than an instructional design model. As such it has a strong pre-planning and design phase.

Merrill's first Principles of Instruction merges well with ADDIE. Centering around creating learning experiences that are focused on authentic problems or tasks, this model aims to guide students through learning about, reflecting on, and solving problems and tasks.The four principles are Activation, Demonstration, Application, and Integration.

How might a merger between these two instructional design models appear? What issues need to be addressed in an Instructional Design Model for adult learners? What, if anything, needs to be added to the new model?

Let's call this merger MADDIE!

This SpicyNodes below depicts this mashup, and a written explanation follows:



MADDIE Phase 1: Material
Make the material relevant.  Not part of the original ADDIE, Merrill proposes the relevancy of the material is extremely important to adult learners.  Questions to be pondered include

• Is the topic problem- and task-centered?
• Can learners be engaged in solving real world problems and tasks?

 
MADDIE Phase 2: Analysis
The ADDIE analysis phase is the pre-planning phase where one thinks about the training to be offered. Designers ponder the design of the course or training, audience, goals, objectives, identify content, identify environment and delivery, consider instructional strategies and assessment, along with formative and summative assessment....Think about these items. Research best practices.

Merrill's model does not really provide a "thinking" phase where the designer pre-plans and readies him- or herself to design. His Activation phase, however, can be integrated into the ADDIE Analysis phase. During Merrill's Activation existing knowledge is retrieved or activated as a foundation for the new knowledge or learning. 

Several questions guide this "thinking" process:

• What pre-existing knowledge do the learners bring?
• What is the gap between what the learners already know and what they need to know?
• What do you need to teach?
• Do you need to do a pre-test to see "where they are" and "where you need to begin"?
• Will you need to provide a review with the students?
• Who are the learners and what are their characteristics?
• What is the desired new behavior?
• What are the specific learning objectives (outcomes) for this course?
• Are the objectives based on accreditation agency, program, or university mission requirements? 
• What LEVEL of learning will you target for learning outcomes?
• What types of learning constraints exist?
• What are the delivery options (face-to-face, online, hybrid)?
• What are the pedagogical considerations?
• What types of learning need to happen? 
• Knowledge
• Skills
• Attitudes  
• What adult learning theory considerations apply?
• What constraints might impact the delivery of this course/training?
• What is the timeline for project completion?

MADDIE Phase 3: Design
ADDIE's Design phase encompasses creation of a blueprint of the course or training on paper.  In this phase the designer starts developing the overall structure of the course, the content topics, the Goal of the instruction in general terms, the specific learning objectives, content that will be used (documents, PowerPoint, etc.), instructional strategies to be used, exercises, resources, media selection, assessment strategies, due dates, specific tools that will allow the designer to accomplish these.

This is also the point at which the designer structures the learning event, (i.e., the sequence of instructions the learners will use to work them through the content and learning strategies in each of the units. The Design phase is a systematic and very specific approach. Details.  Planning. Constantly evaluating and re-evaluating. 

Merrill does not really have a  blueprint design phase, just somehow expects designers to move from identifying the task to..BOOM! creating the content and building the course.

Adding the Merrill phase of Demonstration allows developers to truly design for the adult learner as  they identify the learner's existing knowledge  to use as a foundation for new knowledge. Merrills's questions posed in phase 1 and phase 2 actually integrate much better here into the MADDIE's Design phase. Merrill's Application and Integration phases could be integrated here as well as they deal with quality of instruction.

The Design phase, then, results in a very complete blueprint for the course or training,
contains a series of tasks guided by overarching questions (questions combined from ADDIE and from Merrill's Demonstration, Application, and Integration phases):

Overarching Questions

Designer Tasks

Does the instruction make use of or activate learners’ prior knowledge as a foundation for the new learning, including cognitive structures to help organize the new knowledge? Is there an opportunity to demonstrate previously acquired knowledge or skill? Does the instruction help learners see the relevance of the problem task and boost confidence in their ability to complete the task successfully? Does the instruction involve real world problems and tasks relevant to the learner? Does the instruction show the learners what they’ll be able to do at the end of the learning experience? Does the instruction include the components or chunks required for the successful completion of the problem or task? Does the instruction show multiple examples of the problem or task?

Document the instructional, visual, and technical design strategy by using a blueprint  or storyboard designed to cover the entire training Identify learning objectives  and activities for each unit Apply instructional strategies according to intended behavioral outcomes by domain (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) Identify formative and summative assessment Design the user interface and the user experience Create a prototype Apply visual design/graphic design

MADDIE Phase 4: Development
The course or training has been planned: now it it time to develop the training or course - to build it...

ADDIE's Development Phase involves the developers creating and assembling the content assets and activities that were planned in the design phase. Programmers work to develop and/or integrate technologies. Testers perform debugging procedures. The project is reviewed and revised according to any feedback given.  Again, Merrill does not really address this issue separately, but items addressed in the Demonstration phase can certainly be re-visited here in the form of review. Feedback is an extremely important aspect of this phase, and several questions (not posed in either model) need to guide this:

• Does the instruction flow easily from one topic to the other, one unit to the next?
• Is an orientation module or unit provided, one that introduces the learner to the expected experience, assignments, assessments, and such?
• Are activities and assessments aligned with learning objectives?
• Is feedback provided after practice?
• Are multiple types of feedback provided?
• Is coaching or scaffolding available to learners? 
•  Are examples consistent with the content being taught? E.g. examples and non-examples for concepts, demonstrations for procedures, visualizations for processes, modeling for behavior? 
• Are learner guidance techniques employed? 
• Learners are directed to relevant information?
• Multiple representations are used for the demonstrations?
• Multiple demonstrations are explicitly compared?
• Is media relevant to the content and used to enhance learning?
• Does instruction encourage learners to transfer learning to everyday contexts?
• Are learners given  an opportunity to publicly demonstrate their new knowledge or skill?
• Are learners given the opportunity to create, invent, and explore new and personal ways to use their new knowledge or skills?

MADDIE Phase 5: Implementation
Phase 1 (Material) identified the topic. In phase 2 (Analyze) the designer pre-plans.  Phase 3 (Design) sees the creation of the blueprint. Phase 4 (Development) builds the training.   

So, what's next?

To implement -  to USE what was just built!

Implementation has several components: (1) a pre-flight course check, (2) the first few days check, (3) instruction begins check, and (4) formative feedback in each module or unit.  

Pre-flight course check. Before students are added to the course or before it is "published," designers need to double-check the course:

• Check start/end dates, due dates, etc., for
  • Topics to be covered
  • Assignments
  • Quizzes
  • Discussions postings
• Check settings for
  • Assignments
  • Quizzes
• Check
  • Links in learning modules
  • Student activities to make sure they are clear and correlate with content in menu
The early days of class. After the course begins, the designer now needs to concentrate on Orientation (This should, obviously, have been built in the Development phase, but now it is time to make sure students "orient" themselves to the training or course.)

This orientation needs to incorporate a variety of activities, such as

• Students read the welcome page.
• Students work through the "Start Here" information.
• Students introduce themselves. (This creates a sense of community.)
• Provide feedback to some or all of the introductions.
• If the training uses audio or video, have the students test it before they actually need to use it.
• Make sure the students understand all the course policies as outlined in the "Start Here" module. Ask if there are any questions.
• Students take the "Student Survey" if you desire to get information from them.
• Give a quiz over the "Start Here" module? (optional)
• Announce when the students should begin working.
• Be vigilant to questions from students; check email and discussions frequently (at least for the first week), and respond in a timely manner.
 This can be accomplished with students working through a module themselves but also with students video-conferencing with the instructor. Gathering feedback as this process evolves allows the designer to "tweak."   

The instruction begins. One students are "oriented" to the course or training, the real instruction begins.  Designers may be adding to the course as follows:

• Post a discussion to reinforce what the students should be doing.
• During the first week, ask "How's it going? This helps the students know you genuinely care about their experience in your course, and it could alert you to any potential problems.  
 

Formative feedback in each module. During Implementation, we begin to collect  formative feedback to help us see what is working and not working. This should have already been set up in our course for every learning module. Open-ended questions get the best results. For example:


• What do you like best about this learning unit?
• What do you like least about this learning unit?
• How would you improve this learning unit?
You have access to this feedback at any time. It is recommended that you read the feedback on a frequent basis, and make adjustments to the course as necessary.

MADDIE Phase 6: Evaluation 
This phase is really continuous and is not saved until last. The evaluation phase consists of two parts: formative and summative. Formative evaluation is present in each stage of the ADDIE process. Merrill does not really address the evaluation portion - something extremely necessary to learning! 
In addition to using specific course assignments, summative evaluation could also entail using the questions below in addition to carefully reviewing each module in light of the overarching questions posted in preceding phases.

• Did the students achieve expected learning outcomes?
• What have you learned?
• How can you make the course better?
 

MADDIE, in conclusion
ADDIE, as a project management tool provides a fantastic process for planning, developing, and building....but is somewhat weak as to the instructional component. Merrill's First Principles is weak on the planning but provides a strong structural framework for the instruction and evaluation pieces.

Combining the two models into MADDIE strengthens both models and may well be the one I decide to adopt in course design.